Today, to the sound of Edith Piaf's famous song (see title: Absolutely nothing, I regret nothing), I marched on down to the train station to buy my ticket to Paris for Wednesday. It was a bit blustery, but I was feeling rather chipper. This week has been (for the most part) a pretty good week. Mainly, my kids are finally behaving and I'm starting to warm up to Avranches again. On my walk I took the path through the jardin des plantes, and it was prettier than I remembered, even with the gray sky overhead. Not too bad.
This week I did a lot of lessons (again) on gender, race and politics, which interested a select number of students quite a bit, and the rest of my students not at all. But that's okay, because I'm going to continue our discussions next week, and however long it takes for everyone to care. They can't get away that easy! In fact, I was quite surprised to find that again this week the macho boys took more of an interest in the subject than I would have ever imagined. Maybe there is hope.
Yesterday I did some practice Cambridge Oral Exams for my yearbook-ers, and I was (thankfully) on my own. The kids did a great job, and listened, and seemed to actually care about the advice and tips I was giving them. I guess when you mention "upcoming exam" they start to tune it, esp since I can help them more than their actual teacher. We worked on having normal-ish conversations, and using questions/etc when you're unsure what the topic is. I reminded them that if they don't know they can ask their partner (the exam is in pairs) questions, and if those questions are in English, then that counts towards showing that they have a command of the language. It even makes the conversation less forced. So we'll see. For homework I told them all to go to mtv.com (I kid you not) and watch some of the free shows online. I recommended the Hills, Laguna Beach, True Life and Made (though there are plenty of others). They were shocked that I would actually recommend those shows, and I explained to them that not only are those shows shallow and simple, but they use boring everyday conversation vocabulary. If they just watch a few episodes, they'll hear a lot of greetings, etc, that will help reinforce the vocab they need for their exam (and it will aid in the listening comprehension part). At the end of class I told them that I'd be gone next week because I'd be in the US, and they flipped out. They thought I was finished or something, but I explained that I'd be back the next week, and that would be my last day. That didn't help much. They seemed genuinely upset. I'd like to think it's because they think I'm a cool assistant, but a part of me knows they just prefer dinking around with me than getting yelled at by their teacher. A few of them suggested we have a party, and some said that if they ever travel to the US they are going to visit me (yeah right, but nice thought). And they made me promise to visit them after break during my last two days (I end on a Tuesday, but see them on a Friday). Part of me would be willing to finish out that whole week for the sake of some of my classes, but another part is ready to be done with some of my more unruly classes, so I think I'll just end on Tuesday (though I will stop by one of their other classes before leaving).
You will all be proud to hear about my culinary progress this week. Rachel had already taught me how to do some yummy sauted potatoes, and Kate taught me a great way to use spinach and creme to make a sauce for tortellini, but this week Colin taught me how to make a reduction sauce. It's great because the principles he taught me are basic enough that by changing a few ingredients you can make a radically different sauce. He helped me make a red wine sauce for my turkey and it was quite delicious. The non-evident tips: butter and flour to thicken the sauce, chicken or beef stalk for added flavor, if using cider (my goal for next week) add lardons (bacon pieces) to spice it up a bit. He also showed me how to roast garlic, which you can add to mayonnaise for a posh condiment. And if you cut a garlic clove in half and remove the green bit, you effectively eliminate the cause of garlic breathe. Thank you Colin. I even bought an artichoke (on a whim), and he promised to help me figure out what to do with it. One day, I'll eat like a normal person. No more chicken nuggets!
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